Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Florida School Shooting

Florida School Shooting - Members of a Florida school board were searching for answers on Wednesday as to why a 56-year-old ex-convict opened fire on them before killing himself at an otherwise routine meeting.

Speaking to reporters during multiple interviews, school officials from the Bay County Public School District said they were still puzzled about the Tuesday afternoon incident in Panama City.

They were held hostage at gunpoint before scrambling for their lives amid a hail of gunfire that ended in the death of shooter Clay Duke. No one else was injured in the incident, video of which has gone viral on the Internet.

"It was surreal, "school superintendent Bill Husfelt said on Wednesday. "We're talking about technology and head lice and the next thing we know this guy's got a gun to our face. There is nothing you can do to prepare for that."

Florida School Shooting

Video of the incident shows Duke walking up to a podium and spray painting a large "V" with a circle around it on a wall in the hearing room before pulling out a 9 millimeter pistol. He then ordered women and all visitors to leave the room but held the six male members of the board hostage for eight tense minutes.

At one point, board member Ginger Littleton sneaked back into the room behind Duke and hit him with her purse in an attempt to dislodge the gun. That failed and Duke pushed Littleton down, trained the gun at her but didn't shoot.

"My plan 'A' was to try to get the gun away from him," Littleton said on Wednesday. "Because I'm not smarter than the average bear, I didn't have a plan 'B.'"